Edmonton School Enrolment Process Explained

Well, If it’s not excitement, it certainly feels overwhelming to make the best decision for your kid when it comes to school admission.

Especially when you are a parent of a first or only child who is attending school this year. I was in the same boat last year and I fought my way hard to know all the information that was available at hand.

To make life easier for some of the parents, I am writing this guide in the hope that it helps you. I will walk you through step by step process as we know and steps that you could take as a parent.

By now you already know the dates for the enrollment and all the information that we are about to mention here is already available on EPSB’s website. Please note that this information is not a replacement for that but rather a simpler version to understand it.

Let’s deep dive.

1. Choosing a school

Every community in Edmonton Municipality has a designated school, and every child has a right to attend a school.

The first step is to find your designated school. This can be done here.

Once you go there, you can enter your address in the bar and hit go.

It will give you a highlighted map suggesting your community and all designated schools for that community highlighted with 🍎.

Designated schools mean you get admission to that school as long as it’s under Growth Level 1 and Level 2.

Regular Program vs Special Program

As a parent, if you are hoping to place your kid into some special programs such as Cogito, Gifted & Talented, Litercy, or French Immersion then you need to select that program in the ‘Search by Program‘ after you enter the address. That will filter schools that offer that program.

Here’s where the struggle starts. You can only apply to this program if your designated school is not providing the same program.

Say I want to place my kid into the Cogito program, but my designated school isn’t providing that program, then I can apply to another school from the list that provides that.

But that other school has to be in Growth Control Model Level 1. 

📌 Now another thing to keep in mind is Transportation.

If you are going away from your designated school, your Yellow Bus transportation chances are narrowed down. Only certain schools with this special program might provide the Yellow School Bus service in your community.

Let’s take an example again:

In my case, Richard Secord School’s attendance area map shows where the Bus Service is available for the defined year and a program. If your community isn’t showing up there, then that means, they will not provide Yellow bus Service. You will have to set up a drop & pick up by yourself for your kid.

Note: to get to this screen, in Find a School, select the school from the map, click on their name and it will take you to the individual page of the school, that’s where you can find this info.

Growth Control Model

Every year, each school is assigned a Level. This is important information to understand.

Level 1

• Resident students from the designated attendance area are guaranteed access during pre-enrolment.

• Siblings of current students who are returning to the school the following year are guaranteed access during pre-enrolment

• The school can accept resident students from outside the attendance area if there’s space

• Non-resident students may select a school during pre-enrolment and can be accepted if there is space remaining after all resident students are enrolled

Level 2

Schools at Level 2 are nearing capacity. At this level, schools:

• may close the attendance area boundary—only resident students in the designated attendance area and siblings can enrol, as long as both students are returning to the school next year

• do not accept resident students from outside the attendance area if the school has closed boundaries

Level 3

Schools at Level 3 have reached capacity. At this level, schools will:

• only accept new resident students from the designated attendance area; however, these students are not necessarily guaranteed to attend

• implement a lottery process for new resident students from the designated attendance area who wish to enrol in grades that are full at the school

• give priority to siblings who are resident students and live in the attendance area, but they are not guaranteed to attend if there is not enough space in their grade

Transportation/Yellow Bus Service

Each school has its own defined routes/communities that provide yellow bus services.

Before applying for any school, ensure that how you know their bus routes.

• Find a school

• Filter the school you like to apply

• Select that school and open it’s full page

• Check the Attendance Area map and Bus Service

Your options:

1. Your designated school, always has the bus service available in your community, no matter how far they are.

2. If you apply to a different school, If they do not provide a bus service in your community, then that means if you get admission into this school, it will be your parent’s responsibility to arrange the transportation.

3. Some schools do provide bus services to your community for their special program.

   • For example, if I am applying for the Cogito program in a school that is not my designated school, there might be chances that it provides bus services to my community, but that’s not guaranteed.

Action item: Check before you apply and ask these questions in Open House.

Open House

It’s an easy process, check them here.

How to Register?

Well, I hope you are following me so far and if yes, you are at the last step of it.

Once you finalized everything and narrowed down the school, you can register for the school.

Once you are ready follow these steps listed on their website.

That’s about it. You have done the proudest thing as a parent. So now chill and enjoy parenthood’s next chapter.

If you have any questions, feel free to write us at [email protected]